I've been down too many highways where all two or three lanes were occupied by people doing the speed limit or slower. Nobody could pass them since they were all near each other with no room to get around.
The result? Traffic gets backed up needlessly and transit time increases.
This is often one of the reasons why we have minimum speed limits. You are simply an impediment to traffic if you go slow.
I'm a transportation planner, and the great grandparent is incorrect. Slower speed has little to do with congestion, other than being a side effect. Up to a certain point, slower speeds actually allow more people onto the road. Congestion just has to do with the number of vehicles being too great for the amount of road, for the most part. Speed and capacity are related, but only in that speeds drop as congestion increases.
You're just talking about the situation where someone is blocking you from drivi
I'm a transportation planner, and the great grandparent is incorrect.
Just saying "I'm a transportation planner" means absolutely nothing to us unless you can tell us which city you work for, and which roadways you've planned.
If you've planned some of the roads near where I live, I'd take whatever you say with a large grain of salt.
> Go a few miles slower and the traffic will be more "smooth" > and global highway capacity will increase: the net effect will > be that more cars wil go over a milestone on a time frame, and > contrary to common sense everybody will arrive faster to their > destinies.
The slower the cars are travelling, the less distance required between each car, therefore the higher number of cars that can be on the road at the same time, therefore the increased capacity of the road..
The problem (of course) is that it assumes that all the cars are travelling the same speed.
Most traffic collisions result from cars travelling different speeds. One car goes much faster (or slower) than the rest causes an accident.
Or (following the line of reasoning present in the preceeding two posts) we could make the speed limit on every road 5KPH, which would maximize the road capacity!
"Who alone has reason to *lie himself out* of actuality? He who *suffers*
from it."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
Doesn't slower speed increase congestion? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Doesn't slower speed increase congestion? (Score:0)
This is one of those cases. If traffic was a liquid flowing smoothly through a pipe, then it would be. But traffic does not behave like a liquid.
Re:Doesn't slower speed increase congestion? (Score:0)
I've been down too many highways where all two or three lanes were occupied by people doing the speed limit or slower. Nobody could pass them since they were all near each other with no room to get around.
The result? Traffic gets backed up needlessly and transit time increases.
This is often one of the reasons why we have minimum speed limits. You are simply an impediment to traffic if you go slow.
Re:Doesn't slower speed increase congestion? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Doesn't slower speed increase congestion? (Score:3, Funny)
Just saying "I'm a transportation planner" means absolutely nothing to us unless you can tell us which city you work for, and which roadways you've planned.
If you've planned some of the roads near where I live, I'd take whatever you say with a large grain of salt.
Re:Doesn't slower speed increase congestion? (Score:1)
> and global highway capacity will increase: the net effect will
> be that more cars wil go over a milestone on a time frame, and
> contrary to common sense everybody will arrive faster to their
> destinies.
The slower the cars are travelling, the less distance required between each car, therefore the higher number of cars that can be on the road at the same time, therefore the increased capacity of the road..
THAT seems common sense t
Re:Doesn't slower speed increase congestion? (Score:2)
Most traffic collisions result from cars travelling different speeds. One car goes much faster (or slower) than the rest causes an accident.
Or (following the line of reasoning present in the preceeding two posts) we could make the speed limit on every road 5KPH, which would maximize the road capacity!